Categorical Claims: a claim that can be rewritten as an equivalent claim that has the following standard forms-
A-claim (universal affirmative): All S is P / All S are P
E-claim (universal negative): No S is P / No S are P
I-claim (particular affirmative): Some S is P / Some S are P
O-claim (particular negative): Some S is not P / Some S are not PExample:
All cats are mammals.
No cats are reptiles.
Cats are long-haired animals.
Cats are not short-haired animals.
The examples above states that we reason with in daily speech aren't in any of these forms. Instead, Aristotelians suggest that we can rewrite many of them to show that they are categorical by using "=":
All cats meow. = All cats are things that meow.
Some dogs doesn't like cats. = Some dog is a thing that doesn't like cats.
To wrap it up:
In general, we have to keep in mind that in a categorical claim. the term (phrase or word) that replaces the letter S is called the subject of the claim. When an ordinary person sees the sentence "all cats are mammals", they would assume the predicate is "are mammals" while in Aristotelian logic, the predicate is just "mammals".
The way that the categorical claims are stated very unique and how each example shows the distinction between the two arguments. The universal affirmative shows that all S are P and all S is P. An example for this would include that all cars are dependable; my car is dependable. I also love how the example are used in the story above, mentioning how all cats are mammals, but they are not reptiles. The way that the example show is using the cat as the S and the mammal or reptile as P.
ReplyDelete